HONG KONG: Consultation paper on democratic reform
Updated
The Hong Kong government has released its long-awaited consultation paper on political reform, which includes the option of universal suffrage in five years' time. The so-called Green Paper will undergo a three-month consultation process, seeking what the authorities promise will be a broad consensus for political change. But pro-democracy groups say the document fails to put forward any concrete models for reform, and they're concerned, too, that Chief Executive Donald Tsang says there are no guarantees. Instead he echoed Beijing's call for "gradual and orderly" political change. So just how meaningful is the Green Paper?
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speakers: Joseph Cheng, director of the Contemporary China Research Centre at City University in Hong Kong
CHENG: Well this is the initial stage of consultation. The government wisely put forward different corrections on different aspects of the political system, like when would you like to see universal suffrage for the election of a Chief Executive? The nomination process, the qualifications of formal candidacy and so on. So there are different corrections on different aspects. The difficulty from the pro-democracy movement's point of view is that there is no complete formula, no complete model presented, so that it is difficult for any party to demonstrate that there is a majority support for a particular model. And of course given this type of green paper open options for all it is difficult to criticise the government at this stage because it has not ruled out any options.
LAM: You mentioned the timeframe earlier, now outsiders, people who are observing Hong Kong from outside might say that the people have waited for a long time for universal suffrage, surely that's a given that they would want universal suffrage as soon as possible?
CHENG: Exactly, I think if the government really respects public opinion there is ample evidence that in the past seven or eight years there are many opinions surveyed which have consistently indicated that at least 50 per cent of the people, sometimes as high as 70 per cent of the people who have clearly indicated that they would like to see universal suffrage to be implemented for the election of a Chief Executive, and for the election of the entire legislature as soon as possible. And this is a crucial point because the government clearly indicated that it will respect public opinion, the public opinion will be a very important reference, but the government will not be bound by public opinion. Ultimately Beijing's decision will be final, which is rather discouraging.
LAM: Yes well the Chief Executive Donald Tsang has already said that he hopes to settle this question by the end of his term in 2012, that's in five years time. His critics are sceptical. Just how much influence Joseph does Donald Tsang have, the Chief Executive, how much influence does he have on this issue over Beijing?
CHENG: People in general do not believe that he has much say, people believe that Beijing will make the decision, and that Donald Tsang will not fight with Beijing on such an issue. And I think it is rather clear that after Donald Tsang indicated that he would follow any model support by 60 per cent of the people, a very important pro-Beijing figure, the Convenor of the Executive Council, Leung Chun-ying came out immediately and wrote in the newspapers and said the baseline for the political reform is that the candidates of the Chief Executive must all be acceptable to Beijing. And this is the crucial controversy, that is to say it appears that the pro-Beijing circle's won a kind of filtering process to make sure that all candidates are acceptable to Beijing.
LAM: Which of course makes it a rather meaningless exercise doesn't it?
CHENG: Exactly so on one hand there's no respect for public opinion and Beijing still would like to retain its ultimate control.
